Digital Volume Control Voltage Reduction?

[Arn C.]

I added a buffer circuit from GGG site to the front end of this DS1669-10 digital volume circuit and the results were the same, no sound at all.   I am stumped.  I did bring my power supply to work with me so I can test it here.   Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks!
Arn C.

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

I can't suggest anything, except to say that the loading of the guitar wouldn't have stopped the signal alltogether, so there must be a problem in wiring. Check the voltages on each pin of the attenuator chip & see whether they are what they should be.

[Arn C.]

Thanks Paul, I will do that!  Here is the circuit I have up to date.  Maybe something is wrong with the circuit?



Thanks!
Arn C.

[Arn C.]

I made a mistake in my wiring.  I had the +9 vdc going to R2 instead of R3. Fixed.
I tried it here at work, all I got was a bunch of noise when it should of been a radio station tune.
Still confused.  I will try it at home with my guitar and amp, but I don't expect that it will work.  Without anything (a signal) hooked up, just power to box, I only had voltage on the voltage input pin #8 and
pin #7, both had 5vdc, when I pressed one of the switches, can't remember which one, I think the one attached to switch off of pin #7, the voltage decreased down to almost zero and when I stopped hitting the switch it jumped back up to 5vdc, it wouldn't stay.   I did notice on the data sheet that the input volts to the ds1669 is supposed to be "floating" on power up?  What does that mean?

Thanks!
Arn C.

[Arn C.]

Okay, after I tried it out in my office and just got noise and no proper sound, I decided for the heck of it to swap out the IC, since I had the power going to the wrong place in the circuit. 
Voila!  It works great!  I took it home last night expecting it not to work at all and it did work.
The only thing I had wrong was which switch was volume up and which switch was volume down.  And of course this is just a preference thing.  I like volume up on the right and volume down on the left.  I will switch that this morning.  And the switches themselve click real loud, not over my amp, just the switches, so I am going to replace them with not so noisy of switches.  The unit is absolutely quiet, It even quieted down my tube amp a bit, I guess because of the buffer in front of it.?  I will post a few pics next.

The next thing I am going to do is to put in a digital readout that shows where I am at with numbers.
(0-64 counts).

Thanks for all your help gents!

Arn C.

[A.S.P.]

tell us, wether the "old" IC crapped out forever, or if you got it working again, plz.

[Arn C.]

A.S.P., When I make the next one I will try out the old IC and see if it works!

One more thing.  To increase or decrease the volume, all you have to do is to push down on either one of the switches(according to which way you want it to go) and just hold it down until you get the volume where you want it, no multiple hitting of the switch, just hold it!  Sweet!!!!!

Arn C.